


Another Death

by koalathebear



Category: Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-03-17 01:32:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3510203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koalathebear/pseuds/koalathebear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the things that really gets me about this movie is how brave Rita is every time she dies and how you can see each death genuinely affecting William Cage - getting past his initial selfishness ...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Death

_"Stepping left, ducking right. Move on."_

Cage stands and stares at her, listening as she recites every step, commits every direction to memory. They both know that the reason they're standing there is because she's died again - that Cage has died again. That Cage has failed again.

_"You're not being specific. You need to be specific. Otherwise, I'm dead."_

Her voice is determined.

_"I'm gonna step left. There's gonna be a mimic there, which I'll kill."_

Her face is fierce and resolute.

_"I'm gonna run 30 paces northwest. I'm gonna duck at the top of that trench and then I'm gonna turn left."_

Cage can't help staring at her. He has memorised every single part of her face, every single tiny blemish to the point that her face looks perfect to him – that she is absolutely perfect to him.

He'll never get over how strange this is – that he gets to know her more and more every day and yet she still sees him as a stranger. They've fought side by side and she has died in his arms more often than he can count. There's nothing more intimate than holding her in his arms and seeing the light leave her eyes and the last breath leave her body.

_"I wish I didn’t know you, but I do.”_

He doesn't mean it … He has never met anyone like her. In all the times she has died before him, she's never been anything by fearless. She is unswerving in her determination to save the world. Sometimes she has died by his hand because he cannot bear to see her in pain, hear her biting back her sobs of agony. It's something that no one should have to experience. 

He's also aware that this woman has reached deep into the soul of the coward he used to be and transformed him into someone capable of putting others before himself.

He's lost count of the number of times he's stood on the beach, staring down at her lifeless face. She doesn't know that there have been times when he has dropped to the ground beside her and pulled her warm body into his arms, holding her close as his eyes burn with unshed tears – waiting for his own inevitable death.

She's the bravest person he has ever met in his life and he can't bear the thought of seeing her die again.


End file.
